{"data":{"id":"801","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":801,"topgoose_id":1702,"tms_id":801,"display_name":"Alvin Loving","sort_name":"Loving Alvin","display_date":"1935–2005","begin_date":"1935","end_date":"2005","biography":"\u003cp\u003eThe title of Alvin Loving’s \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/329\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eSeptehedron 34\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\ndescribes the open, seven-faced object that\nhe painted onto a shaped canvas. Loving\nbegan working in the late 1960s with\ngeometric shapes, which provided him with\nwhat he described as “a sort of mundane\nform that could be very, very dull unless\na great deal was done with it.” The young\npainter used this structure as an arena\nfor experimentation, a way to uncover his\nparticular colorist sensibility. Loving enlivens\nhis subject here by juxtaposing Day-Glo\npigments that recede or advance relative to\none another. The resulting composition\ntoggles between three-dimensional illusion\nand painterly flatness. His paintings\ngarnered significant attention, and in 1969\nhe became the first African American\nartist to receive a one-person show at the\nWhitney Museum.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe shaped canvases and geometric\nforms depicted in Loving’s paintings\nfrom the late 1960s and early 1970s align\nwith the emphasis on rigorous abstraction\nand repetition championed by many of\nhis Minimalist contemporaries. However,\nthe mid-1960s also saw the rise of the\nBlack Arts Movement and other activist\ngroups whose members asserted the\nurgent need for art reflective of African\nAmericans’ everyday struggles. While\nLoving’s abstractions eschew the figurative\ncontent often associated with activist\nart, he was politically engaged in his\nlife outside the studio and believed that\n“art is about needs that have not been met.”\nIndeed, his claim that “even a box can\nbe a self-portrait” prompts the viewer to\nconsider how \u003cem\u003eSeptehedron 34\u003c/em\u003e, a thoroughly\nnonrepresentational painting, can also\nreveal the personal.\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":null,"wikidata_id":"Q4738077","created_at":"2017-08-30T16:35:50.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-12T07:00:40.080-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/801/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/801/exhibitions"}}}}